I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts On Being A Woman

With her disarming, intimate, completely accessible voice, and dry sense of humor, Nora Ephron shares with us her ups and downs in I Feel Bad About My Neck, a candid, hilarious look at women who are getting older and dealing with the tribulations of maintenance, menopause, empty nests, and life itself.

Where does I Feel Bad About My Neck rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I Feel Bad About My Neck is definitely one of my favorites. I read/listen to various genres, and this is definitely among the better of the memoirs. I have found it is the only Nora memoir (not fictionalized) that I enjoyed.

What other book might you compare I Feel Bad About My Neck to and why?

Any of the Sedaris memoirs. Both are read by the authors, both authors are able to clearly convey a scene.

Which character – as performed by Nora Ephron – was your favorite?

It is all about La Nora.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No. I listen to this style of book to be able to listen in discrete periods of time. A novel will often suck me in, trying my willpower. Distinct beginnings and endings make it easier to be strong and stop when I should.

Any additional comments?

I have listened to this book many times, in whole and in part. It did take me a while to get used to Nora's voice, and every listen takes a bit of an adjustment. But in the end, it makes sense that she narrated her own life and adds a certain depth to the experience.

Accidentally Dead: Accidentally Friends, Book 2

It's a lousy first day on the job for Nina Blackman. A patient, loopy from the anesthesia, bites her. At least he was cute. The next morning, Nina wakes up with a set of razor-sharp fangs, bionic vision, supersonic hearing, and a taste for blood. But there's a good explanation: It's her patient, Long Island vampire Greg Statleon. Is Nina willing to commit to one man for eternity, even if they are perfect for each other?

I am not sure there is a word in the English language to describe how much I hated this "heroine." Nina Blackman. Gosh, I don't even like her name. A vampire called "blackman" conjures up visions of Dracula in his black tux and cape. Yep. Don't even want to hear the name Nina ever again. What a whiny, cranky, bitchy heroin. Okay. That was cathartic. Let me continue.

Why, you ask, did I subject myself to listening to the whole book. Simple. I am cheap. I bought it on Audible (after listening to a snippet and reading a couple of reviews) and dang it, I was going to listen to it. But yet there was another more salient reason: as a reminder never to fall prey to the Audible Buy Three for Two Credits "sale." Yep. Cheap gets me every time. But when I see the sale next time, I am just going to say "Blackman" in the same tone with the same expression Jerry Seinfeld says "Newman." Then I will know just to turn away, don't look for that elusive third book.

So here is the thing. The story was okay. Nothing original, really. Dental hygienist gets a quasi bite from a vampire. Dental hygienist becomes a vampire. It should have been fun, enjoyable even. But it wasn't.

Nina Blackman has had a hard life. Nobody is saying she hasn't. Her mother was a serial abandoner, until she just never came home again. her father was on over-the-road trucker who often had to leave, of course, and then he died. So she was raised by her grandmother, a seemingly loving woman who wants nothing but the best for her granddaughter.

Nina has two really good friends, whether she will acknowledge this to anyone, including herself, or not. These two friends stick by her through thick and thin, unfanged and fanged. In fact, one of the friends accidentally became a werewolf in the first book of this series. But I digress.

Nina Blackman is one of those people who wallows. She wallows in how poor she is. She wallows in her history. She wallows in her absolute misery with herself and who and what she is. And this is before she was turned into a vampire. She knows she is a miserable creature. She knows she is absolutely miserable. She knows she visits this same misery upon everybody who comes into contact with her. How do I know this? Because she goes on and on and on about it interminably.

But for some reason, she is rewarded for this wallowing. She has two great friends who prove time and time again they are there for her. The vampire that turns her accidentally? Well, he is a hunk and a half, rich, has developed the great skills of flying and wishing things into existence. If that won't make you fall in love, nothing will.

Well, after a lot of really stupid machinations and manipulations, Nina the Execrable Being and the Vampire Hunk marry. Now, give our girl the credit, she married him to save his life. He marries her because her lurves her, apparently. But here is the problem. They are going to live forever (barring even more stupid machinations and manipulations.) This is an impediment to their mating/marriage. Vampire Hung drags his feet (and believe me, I would, too, but for different reasons) about marrying our girl Nina. But he is afraid that she will be bored with him century after century. He wants her to be sure. Well, she is sure.

But let me tell you the part that really got me about this story. There is NO character growth on Nina's part. There is no maturity attained. There is nothing. Not only that, she doesn't plan on maturing, on allowing for growth. At the very end of the book, right before they marry, Nina recounts all of her character flaws, both in her head and out loud to Vampire Hunk. Every.last.one.of.them. And Vampire Hunk rejoices in her difficult personality. Seriously, dude. This may be charming now because as Vampire Hunk you are used to people bowing and scraping and kissing up to you. How charming that she doesn't. But let me tell you, that will get old fast. You can't even say hello to this woman without her getting upset. You can't give her a gift without her doubting its sincerity.

So bottom line: she plans on carrying on for all eternity just like she has for this book that seemed to last for an eternity. No, a complete personality transplant would not be realistic. But hey, it is a VAMPIRE book. Nothing realistic needed. No, I didn't want/expect to see Lucrezia Borgia turn into Anne of Green Gables. What I wanted to see was something, anything to show that she wasn't going to continue the loathsome personality of her past.

Yeah. So I listened to the Audible version. The narrator was Meredith Mitchell. I will not got out of my way to listen to Meredith Mitchell again. I don't know if it was the character or the voice characteristics of the narrator, but it was not a pleasant listen. Ms. Mitchell's voice seemed harsh and may have made Nina even less likeable.

Better Homes and Hauntings

When Nina Linden is hired to landscape a private island off the New England coast, she sees it as her chance to rebuild her failing business after being cheated by her unscrupulous ex. She never expects that her new client, software mogul Deacon Whitney, would see more in her than just a talented gardener. Deacon has paid top dollar to the crews he’s hired to renovate the desolate Whitney estate - he had to, because the bumps, thumps, and unexplained sightings of ghostly figures in 19th-century dress are driving workers away faster than he can say “Boo.”

You know, I usually adore Molly Harper, anything and everything she writes. I was excited for this one, but it was just, I don't know, not everything I hoped it would be. Is it me or is it her? I don't really know.

The story was more chick lit, I guess, than romance or mystery.

There is an island. There is a billionaire. There is chicanery. But it just didn't gel.

There were not one by two romances. Again, nobody seemed to be gellin'. The relationships were fine. The humor was fine. The situation was slight ridiculous (and I mean beyond the whole haunted mansion ridiculousness).

It just seemed forced and formulaic.

Amanda Ronconi as always was fabulous. I want her to narrate my life. But talk about ridiculous, forced, and formulaic, that would be me so I wouldn't put her through that.

Pie Girls

Princess, Southern belle, and spoiled-rotten social climber Searcy Roberts swore on a stack of Bibles she'd never return home to Fairhope, Alabama. After marrying her high school sweetheart and moving to Atlanta, Searcy embraces big-city life - Carrie Bradshaw style. But now, Searcy has a teeny, tiny problem. Her husband's had a mid-life crisis. He's quit his job, cancelled her credit cards, and left her for another man. Searcy returns to Fairhope, ready to lick her wounds.

I was given an Audible code for the audio edition by the author. I can't remember if the request of a review for the code was made. But anyway, a review there will be.

This is a coming of age story. Granted, our 35-year-old heroine Searcy Roberts is a bit old to just now be coming of age, but her growth was somewhat hampered by a money-poor youth and a boyfriend/fiancée/husband who made it where she didn't have to grow up.

I am not going to lie. I was not a fan of Ms. Searcy Roberts at the beginning of the book. In fact, I was ready to just walk away. But being a Southern girl myself, I know that the most spoiled Southern heroine generally turns into a strong woman. And that is what happened in this story.

The book opens with Searcy waiting for her husband on their anniversary. He never shows. No, he is not dead. But Searcy's way of life is about to take a major hit. This story is about a woman who is forced out of her comfort zone and into the prime of her life.

The author has a good way with words. I could picture scenes, get the feel for mood, and even wince and cringe at the embarrassing or emotionally painful scenes. As a native Atlantan (there are about six of us left in Atlanta), the other thing that made me cringe were issues with things like brownstones in Buckhead and Saks in downtown. And don't get me started on the myriad of logistical/factual problems with a simple ride on MARTA. But if you don't "know" Atlanta, this won't jerk you out of the story the way it did to me. A minor quibble, but it did make me roll my eyes. More than once.

Listening to a full cast performance of the book was quite interesting. I didn't really understand "full cast" meant more than two performers. I thought the female narrator just changed her voice and then the male performer changed his. But in the credits at the end, there was a whole host of performers mentioned. So that being said, some of the voices were discordant to me. The male "hero" had a much older voice than I would have wished for the hero. Some of the female voices sounded incongruent with the characters they portrayed.

Touch Me: The Touch Series, Book 1

Char is a focused and driven career woman who's had a relationship she would rather choose to forget, but can't. Riley is a pure gentleman who can easily leave the past where it belongs, behind him. Some people believe in fate where others deem it a coincidence. Char and Riley are meant to be together, so life just happens to make sure they are in the right place at the right time. But is that enough?

I was given an Audible coupon code to get a free copy of this book in audio form for an honest review. I also had bought the Amazon version for 99 cents at some point because the written edition is in my library and when I click on it the receipt says I paid 99 cents for it. Who knew.

This is a book written from a dual POV. You have the young Char and the young Riley. They are young, and they seem even younger than they actually are. The humor could be what passes for humor amongst the younger generation. This was not classified as NA, but I would definitely classify it as such.

In reading the blurb on Amazon, Riley is referred to as a "pure gentleman." Apparently pure gentlemen say stuff like "What the (expletive delete), chick, did you not see I was reaching for that when your tiny little meat claws went to snatch it away from me?" And yes, ladies and germs, that was their meet cute. Well, their second meet cute. They had met on a phone call earlier. And that was just as charming.

But here is how the story read to me.

My point of view.

And now that I have told you all that, I am going to sit here and write this review. I am going to purse my lips in concentration while I write it. Then I am going tilt my head to the side as I think about my sister and all the crap she is putting me through right now.

Hey, I think I will say something provocative but yet sweet right now while I think about my life in great and belabored detail.

And now I will write about it from my husband's POV.

I wonder why that woman is always on the computer typing stuff as I sit here napping in my chair that I bought ten years ago with proceeds from my parents' estates. When I sit in it, it is like it surrounds me with the love of my parents. They were really great people and I loved them very much. But then after their death, things went awry with my brother. This makes me sad. If I hadn't already moved away from my home state, I probably would have then. I wonder what's for dinner that my cute, sexy, pursed-lipped wife is cooking.

And that is how I felt listening to this book. I was told everything. I was shown very little. It felt like I was going through someone else's to do list. The dialog felt cutesy and clumsy. It was written for reactions and not depth of character building or plot furtherance.

I listened to the Audible edition. The narrator has an excellent voice. I think she has potential to be a great narrator, but she needs more experience. She needs to figure out male voices a little better, to flex her vocal muscles. Or she needs to narrate books that fit her vocal skills.

After losing her boyfriend, apartment, and job in the same day, Janie Morris can't help wondering what new torment fate has in store. To her utter mortification, Quinn Sullivan- aka Sir McHotpants- witnesses it all then keeps turning up like a pair of shoes you lust after but can't afford. The last thing she expects is for Quinn - the focus of her slightly, albeit harmless, stalkerish tendencies - to make her an offer she can't refuse.

I originally read the e-book over a year ago. I loved it. There were issues, misspellings, obvious overuse of a thesaurus, just wrong words used (indeterminable as opposed to interminable). But it did not hinder my enjoyment of the book. Quirky, fun, likeable characters. Lots of humor. Interesting setups and outcomes. So not my usual fare, but fun and enjoyable. I saw the price for the WS copy and decided what the heck. And who'd a thunk it, but it was an excellent audio book. The narrator Jennifer Grace did an excellent job. The intonations were great, the pacing was spot on, and it made a book I really enjoyed an audiobook I loved. I have a great trepidation of listening to a favorite book because I have it in my head one way and often the narration is totally different, ruining it for me. This time, it was a homerun.

Mark of the Demon: Kara Gillian, Book 1

"Why me? Why now?" That’s what Beaulac, Louisiana, detective Kara Gillian was asking herself when an angelic creature named Rhyzkahl unexpectedly appeared during a routine summoning. Kara was hoping to use her occult skills to catch a serial killer, but never had she conjured anything like this unearthly beautiful and unspeakably powerful being whose very touch set off exquisite new dimensions of pleasure.

More like a 3.5. I am conflicted about how I felt about this book. I enjoyed it for the most part. I really did. But it wasn't what I was expecting, wanting, desiring to read at the moment.

I have read/listened to Diana Rowland's White Trash Zombie books. I was hoping for something like those but with a different heroine, if you. Think about that for a moment. We all hate when an author writes the same book but with a different heroine. So my premise was all wrong to begin with.

Anyhoo, don't be looking for Angel in Kara. Are there similarities? Yes. But the Kara Gillian book was darker. There was not as much humor. Kara is not as disingenuous as our zombie gal Angel, nor is she all that worldly wise. But she knows what she is from day 1. There is no fumbling around, in humorous ways, to figure out how to deal with her situation.

I have told you what it is not. Now I will share what it is.

Kara Gillian is a cop. But she is a cop with an outside life that includes her being a summoner. She summons demons. Now, these demons will do stuff for summoners, but there are different levels of demons one can summon. If you summon a demon that is not of a mind to be summoned, you could be opening up a can of demonic worms you really don't want to open.

And Kara does just that. But Kara can't figure out why or how she did it. She didn't want to. But she did. And of course, the demon doesn't shed any light on the situation for her.

So what we have is a cop with an unwanted demon. And then next thing you know, we have a cop with serial killer on her hands. Coincidence? I think not.

So the story takes us through the machinations of the serial killer, and the machinations of a demon lord with an agenda. Kara is the focal point of both.

There are a lot of red herrings in this book. Red herrings that you can smell. That is not my favorite plot device. They did seem a bit heavy handed.

I also had some issues with Kara's initial meeting with the demon. I didn't "approve" of what happened, nor did I approve when it happened again. But it is all explained away in a PC kind of way so I decided not to get my panties in a twist.

I listened to the Audible version. The narrator is Liv Anderson. I can't remember listening to her before, but I will now seek out books she has narrated. I thought she did a wonderful job.

My Life as a White Trash Zombie

Teenage delinquent Angel Crawford lives with her redneck father in the swamps of southern Louisiana. She's a high school dropout, addicted to drugs and alcohol, and has a police record a mile long. But when she's made into a zombie after a car crash, her addictions disappear, except for her all-consuming need to stay "alive".

So I really don't know what to say. I bought this because it was an Audible Daily Deal and I was intrigued by the other reviews I read. Frankly, this doesn't turn out well for me often. But this was a stunning success.

The basics: Angel is a druggie with issues. She is immersing herself in the drugs and the issues and finds herself waking up in the hospital with blank portions in her memory and questions about just what is going on in her life.

She is presented with some bottles of some liquid with chunks, a letter telling her about a job she has no choice but to take, and more questions than answers.

The book is relatively short, so situations unfold quickly and believably (okay, well, once you accept that whole zombie thing, it is believable).

The writing is very good. It is evocative of place and feelings. You see that Angel is really screwed up. Ms. Rowland doesn't do the whole zombie=good person thing. Angel still struggles with right and wrong. She is in situations that are not pleasant. Her living situation is not the best. And she just deals. There is no Magic Millionaire that shows up with a freezer of brains to help her out. She must help herself, stand up for herself, and deal with the real world and the machinations of the zombie world.

If Audible's goal was to get me hooked on the first one and buy the others at full price (or full credit), goal was achieved. I am also eyeing her other series.

And I would be remiss is I didn't mention the narrator. A definite new-to-me narrator. She is fabulous. Angel's "voice" is spot on. The emotions in the voice are spot on. She is everything you want your new favorite series narrator to be.

Attachments: A Novel

Beth Fremont and Jennifer Scribner-Snyder, coworkers at The Courier, know the newspaper monitors their office e-mail. But they still spend all day sending each other messages, gossiping about their coworkers, and baring their personal lives like an open book. Jennifer tells Beth everything she can’t seem to tell her husband about her anxieties over starting a family. And Beth tells Jennifer everything, period. Meanwhile, Lincoln O’Neill still can’t believe that it’s his job to monitor other people’s e-mail.

Let me start by saying I loved, loved, loved this book in physical, readable form.

It is well written and beautifully edited. I have reread the book numerous times and often pick it up and just read random sections of it. So very, very well done.

The audio performance, well, let's just say I was not as enamored.

I read this book when it first came out, but it has taken me years (two or three) to buy the audio, and I only bought it because it was a daily deal. The thing that kept me from buying it was the format of the book. I knew it would be difficult to do well, and I was right.

So this book takes place in basically the last quarter of 1999. The year and the Y2K scare definitely play a role in the book. I would go so far as to say they could be a character in the book.

Our hero is Lincoln. I will tell you in reading reviews of the book, I was concerned that I would think Lincoln was a creepy stalker type. Yeah, well, I was wrong. I very much view Lincoln as a hero.

Lincoln lives with his mom and works on a paper. Remember, it is 1999 and papers were much more, hmmm, is relevant a good word? Well, maybe not. Anyway, Lincoln is not a journalist or a typesetter. He is a troll. He is the one who reads the flagged e-mails of the employees. Some companies put a filter in with key words. The e-mails that trigger the filter get flagged and someone reads them. That someone is supposed to read, evaluate, and notify the employee not to do "that" (whatever the particular "that" is) anymore.

Lincoln does this, but he is a bit uncomfortable doing it. But it pays really well and he isn't doing much of anything else. It is through this job he is introduced to Beth and Jennifer, two journalist friends who let it all hang out in their e-mails. Needless to say, they get caught in the filter. But Lincoln doesn't do the final leg of his job, letting them know they are inappropriate and stop. He likes them. He is reading their e-mails. The e-mails are quite innocent and very funny. And somehow, he just can't bring himself to make them stop.

I was very wary with this aspect of the plot line. But Rainbow Rowell executed it beautifully. You understood why Linc did what he did (or didn't do what he didn't do). You, too, fell in love with Beth and Jennifer. You respected their friendship. You cheered them on.

Needless to say, Linc has much angst over his (in)actions. But those, too, play out well in the story. You are watching Linc grow. Sure, he is an adult when the story starts, but that is intellectually and physical maturity. You watch his social growth. You watch him grow to know himself. You root for him.

I really think if I say more about the specific story, it will be too spoilery. Watching how the story unfolds is the real beauty of it.

Now to the narration. I knew going in that it would be difficult. There are multiple e-mail threads read. It gets old hearing the back and forth, and the narrator does not do a good job of changing her voice such that you can keep up with who is who in the e-mail threads, even when she reads the to/from.

The narrator's change of voice throughout was pretty much nonexistent. It sounded like your sixth grade teacher reading you a book in class, but not really paying attention to what she was reading. There would be times inflection/tone/voice changed, but there really didn't seem to be a reason for it. Definitely not a fan of the narrator.

BUT here is where I sound like an equivocating ninny. I will relisten to this story again and again. I don't like the narrator, I don't know that I would have chosen her. But she is the narrator of one of my favorite books. I will listen to this book many, many times for that reason. The last few pages of this book are some of the most romantic pages I have ever read in my life (not sexy, but romantic). I will relisten to those portions often. I will fall asleep listening to this book because I find I sleep better listening to a favorite book. When I wake up in the middle of the night, I will use the Audible app and fall asleep to it again.

So am I happy I got the book in audio format? Yes. Am I happy I got it as a daily deal? Yes. Will I get my money's worth out of it? You betcha.

Sixth Grave on the Edge: Charley Davidson, Book 6

Most girls might think twice before getting engaged to someone like Reyes Farrow - but Charley Davidson is not most girls. She’s a paranormal private eye and grim-reaper-in-training who’s known to be a bit of a hell-raiser, especially after a few shots of caffeine. Her beloved Reyes may be the only begotten son of evil, but he’s dark and sultry and deeply sexy and everything Charley could hope for. Really. But when the FBI file on Reyes’ childhood happens to land into her lap, she can’t help herself: She opens it...and then the real fun begins.

As with all of Ms. Jones' Charley Davidson series, I totally enjoyed this book. Lorelei King was spot on, as always. You can tell who the characters are. You can "see" the emotion portrayed. To me this would be a difficult series to narrate. While horrible things happen, there are also funny things, things that make you laugh at loud, and then still giggle a while later. I would imagine it is difficult to swing on that pendulum.

The story is involved, though, on lots of levels. I have no idea how many Ms. Jones is planning on doing and I haven't hit series saturation point yet, but I am wondering if some of the "what just happened" elements in this are sequel bait.

Charley is the Grim Reaper. Yeah, who knew. As the Grim Reaper, she apparently has talents/abilities she knew nothing about. Granted, this is the sixth in the series and one must keep it fresh, but a lot of her new powers/abilities just seemed a little to convenient to just be popping up. I won't do a spoiler for any of them (because quite frankly, I don't really understand a few of them), but their appearance did add some scenes to this book and I am sure will rear their head in the future.

But there was one whole section of the book dealing with a police chief that made no sense to me in context. It seemed to come from nowhere and then it went nowhere and then it disappeared. I can only think it was serial bait. Then there was a death of a minor character (so minor as to be invisible, really) that just seemed to...happen for no apparent reason other than to get an annoying do-nothing character gone. But again, it was handled in such a way as to feel like serial bait. And then a third (but probably the most interesting/vital-to-future episodes) was the situation with her father. But again, not being spoilery. Let's just say that something is up with him, but no one is expressly stating what it is. Charley is very concerned in the beginning, but then you never hear of the situation again.

I really felt all of these threads were just filler matter that really added nothing to the story and in the case of the police chief it took away from the story at hand.I am sure I will be proven wrong in the future, but these story sidelines made me shake my head more than once.

So bottom line for this not-a-review review is that if you liked the other five, you will like this. If you are just hopping in the series, you certainly can hop in here as easily as anywhere else. I don't think you need the foundation of the previous five, but I think you would benefit from it.

Running Back

Natalie Sullivan is on the verge of a breakthrough most archaeology grad students only dream of: discovering a lost city. Her research points to a farm in Ireland, but to excavate she needs permission from the new owner: the Michael O'Connor, popular NFL running back. On TV Mike seems so charming and good-natured that Natalie figures getting his cooperation will be a breeze. So she's not prepared to deal with the arrogant-and adamantly opposed-man she meets in person. Or the way one look from him sends shivers down her spine…

I liked it. I really did. I wasn't surprised because I have liked other stuff this author has written.

Or so I thought.

Here is where I confess I am not very bright. This was a Whispersync deal. I will buy pretty much any WS combo that comes in under 5 bucks unless I have issues with the writer and/or narrator.

Saw this. Jumped on it. Of course, I thought this was written by Allison Packard, not Allison Parr. Yep. As an aside, Allison Packard writes a pretty darn good book, too.

And then (remember, I am not very bright) I realized this was NA. Wait, I don't like NA. I don't buy NA because I don't want to encourage all the whining and self-centeredness in NA. "Just Say No to NA" would be my battle cry in the publishing wars.

Guess what. There is no whining or self-centeredness in this book.

Our heroine, Natalie, is 23, a grad student. There is a lot of setup about what she is in grad school for (archeology) and what her career goals are. A bit of that (remember, I am not very bright) went right over my head. But I understood enough, grasped enough, remembered enough to muddle through it. Her educational issues are the reason for the conflict in the book. The particulars are not that important to understanding what is going on and the motivation behind actions.

Our hero, Mike, holds the key (and the title) to Natalie being able to do a dig on land in Ireland. Natalie had previously been given permission to dig on this land, but the previous owner dies, leaving the land to Mike.

Mike says no to the dig. He has his reasons, of course, but they are revealed later. Mike is a quarterback for a fictional NY football team. This means he can go to Ireland in the off season for family reasons and then hang around for what seems like a really long time.

As far as the story goes, I had some basic issues with it. There were some things that just didn't make sense. Basic-reactions-as-human- beings-type things. Maybe I missed some things because I listened to the Audible version, but some things just didn't flow. There were a couple of times where we are in one location doing one thing and next thing you know they are sitting having tea. I think this is just a transition that was not easily picked up on in the narration.

The sex is 99.9 percent behind doors. Oh, that was one of the transitions I didn't pick up on. Our young couple apparently starts an intimate relationship and I missed it. They are kissing and cuddling, then the next thing I hear after they have a fight is that was the first night Natalie had not visited Mike's room. Ummm, okay. Didn't know that was going on. But that could be my lack of brightness again. And it could also be one of the vagaries of audiobooks. I couldn't flip back to search for something I may have missed so I just went with it.

As always, everybody is too beautiful, too successful, too cute. But you learn to get over that.

I did enjoy seeing Natalie have healthy, supportive relationships with other women. I did appreciate the fact that Natalie was a bit timid about certain things, but she just plunged in and educated herself and executed what needed to be executed.

All in all, it was a positive, mature YA book.

Narration was good. There were accents, different languages, all well done. While there weren't necessarily "men's" voices and "women's" voices, all were distinguishable. Very nicely done.

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